At the start of the year, there can’t have been a single soul out there who would have been able to predict that the biggest breakout box office sensation of the year would be an $18 million thriller that was dropped by Disney and delayed for five whole years, but Sound of Freedom rose from the ashes in style.
The film isn’t without its controversies, though, whether it’s the alleged undertones and leanings that saw it come under sustained fire, the unpalatable irony of somebody who invested money into the anti-trafficking story being arrested on child kidnapping charges, or even its subject being quietly fired from the organization they founded in the wake of assault allegations.
Regardless of the negative publicity and bad buzz, one thing that can’t be denied is that Sound of Freedom was – and still is in certain markets – a monster. Incredibly outstripping Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at the domestic box office despite costing almost $277 million less to produce, the Jim Caviezel vehicle is currently sitting on a global haul of $231 million.
Even its migration to streaming has brought further success, with FlixPatrol naming the polarizing title as one of the most-watched hits on iTunes in every country where it’s been made available. In a year defined by surprising flops and catastrophic bombs everybody could see coming a mile away, Sound of Freedom somehow broke out from the pack to become a license to print money, and the profit margins are only going to get wider with a digital and VOD release.